Chapter 1

GABRIEL

Continued from Part 2: The Life First Love

I watched and listened to Fontane's meltdown and couldn't dredge up even an ounce of sympathy for the man still. His wracking sobs of lament were just the beginning as far as I'm concerned and not a reason for me to ease up on him or show compassion. There are just some things in life that shouldn't be so easily excused, forgiven, yes, but swept under the rug, hell no.

His daughter has been living with the repercussions of his actions for more than a decade. She's almost an adult now, almost able to stand on her own two feet, at least that's my hope, so it's too late for him to pull his head out of his ass and get his shit together. I'm going hard on him with no letup because I dread what would happen, could happen if I leave him in her life.

There's no guarantee that he won't mess up again. It's taking him this long, with all the evidence thrown uuuuuuuuat him, to come to terms with the truth. What could be his reason for not wanting to believe his own daughter and the things he'd seen firsthand? It can only be one of two things, either his ego won't let him accept that he'd been wrong all along, or he's afraid to face the truth.

Both those things are the products of a weak mind. If he can't love her enough to put her first, then there's no need for him in her life. I know part of my reasoning is selfish and self-centered. I want her to become strong, independent, and able to stand on her own two feet. But I also have the need to eliminate her enemies before I can safely go on with my plans without worrying about her future.

I slipped away to visit the grandparents under the guise of playing a game of chess with gramps before leaving for the trip, but in truth, I had way more important things to discuss once I got there. It had been tricky at first, letting someone else in on what I had planned. I had to because I admit I needed help, and other than Pop, I could only find it here.

No one would suspect, least of all Pop, that I would take such a chance. But herein lies the other reason I have to put space between Gianna and me. I'm not the boy she thinks she met. I'm not nice, not sweet, well I have been, with her. What I am is a calculating bastard who'd do whatever it takes to get the result I want.

I have a code of ethics that I live by, true, but if you cross me, there's no length I won't go to to end you. I dabble in things the world would shudder at, my computer is my weapon of choice for now, and I use it, along with others like me, to find and destroy those who prey on the weak with my mother's past as the driving force that pushes me to go where most would falter.

I've sent men to jail after exposing their dark secrets, brought corporations down for using human beings like chattel; these are the kinds of things I do in my spare time. My heart, the one she's been flitting around these last few weeks, has been dead or just about for a very long time.

But the kicker to all this is that I'm the one who thinks she deserves better. I want more for her, even though it kills me to think of her life with someone else. But I'll be gone right, so… I rubbed my chest where it hurt and walked inside my grandparents' home.

"I see you found a way to get yourself to Paris after all. Are you sure you want to go through with this? If Draco gets wind…."

"Yeah, I'm sure. This is just a preliminary visit, though, nothing to worry about. I think I finally found the one I've been searching for. I'll start there."

I held my breath waiting for the advice to put an end to things now. It always comes the closer I get to my goal, and I know it's just that ingrained filial piety and the belief in protecting the women in the family that had got me this far with my need for help.

It hadn't been easy in the beginning; there'd been a lot of questions. I'd had to share part of Ma's story, which hadn't been the easiest thing, but my calculating mind knew that it was the quickest way to cut through the noes I was sure to get. It had worked too. I might be good with a computer, but knowing people in the know had been more useful at this point in the game, and that's where I'd needed help.

My plan is a long, drawn-out one, only held back by the fact that I still don't know where my grandfather is. I'm not expecting the search to be easy; I'm not even sure if he's alive or dead, but I know I won't put the finishing touches on Ricci until I find out. I think Pop and I are both thinking that Ricci either has him stashed somewhere, or he finished him long ago.

According to Ma's words, her dad had gone after Ricci after sending her away. Since Ricci was still alive and kicking, that meant the old man had failed. But where is he now? Pop had searched the whole of Sicily looking for him, that much I know, with no luck, and my search hadn't produced anything, but I think I may have found someone with some answers.

I've spent most of my planning time trying to find the people who would've been at the party where Ma was violated on that horrible night. By process of elimination, I think I'd found most if not all of them. It had taken meticulous precision to comb through Ricci's life going back decades to find those closest to him.

The fact that most of them were still friends, still did things together all these years later leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The man is scum, and so those he surrounds himself with can't be much better is my thinking. I'd found the ones who'd been there, even got my hands on a picture from that night by hacking into his and others' computers a while back.

But there was this one female that seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth. The others were pretty much still going about their lives as usual, but this one had been silent since around the time of the attack. There are no records of her weeks after that night, which leads me to think she'd either distanced herself from them because of it or had gone into hiding for whatever reason.

There's no death on record, nothing, not even a rumor. She'd just up and disappeared one day. I'd found her family, her siblings, and a few cousins, but there was nothing there either. That's where I'd needed help. I needed men or women on the ground where my computer couldn't reach, and since my family is Italian, I'd shamelessly used their connections in the old country to get me what I was after. "So, I guess the boys came through."

"They did."

"Be careful, don't do anything rash. I gather you'll be going in alone?"

"It's the best way for now." A half-truth since I plan to go it all alone, but that admission would bring me more trouble than I want to deal with.

We went over my plans, some of them anyway, the parts I wanted to share. I know it was only to make sure I had all the bases covered, though we'd been through this a hundred times. I could see the questions starting to form with my every answer and made my excuses in haste. There was no point; I won't turn back.

***

The girls were still playing dress-up when I got back, so I threw myself into something else I'd been neglecting these past few weeks. ANONYMOUS is my safe space. A group of men and women who don't know each other beyond the keyboard but share basically the same drive to eliminate the dregs of society from whichever corner they're hiding out in.

I came across the group by chance a long time ago and had been using it as a staging ground of sorts ever since. I've honed my hacking skills, among other things, through the work I do with the team. Even though we don't know each other personally, there are a few that I've grown close to over the years. I don't know their names, other than their handles, but I don't fool myself, and neither do they I suppose that we couldn't find each other if we wanted to.

Hacking came easy to me. Born of necessity, since my prey was halfway across the world, I'd perfected it in less than a year and was soon caught up in that world. That's how I was approached, word got around in the underground that I was good at what I do, and the next thing I knew, I was part of this thing that was hated by many and not even heard of by most.

I learned a lot from the others, and there were times when we needed help from each other outside of whatever crime we were working to expose, so a bond was forged between some of us that have lasted years. Now it was going on two weeks since I'd interacted with them because I was too busy dealing with her mess.

"You're back, Nemesis. You had a good rest, I hope." I smiled as I typed my response.

"Hey, Memnon, I did, yes. I didn't get a chance to see the result of our last job; any word yet?"

"He's done; it's all over the news, though the world has yet to learn of our part in his downfall." That means a job well done. The world only hears of us when we want them to.

"How did the competition go? You aced it, I bet." It took me a second to recall what he was referring to. I'd spent so much time dealing with Gianna that I'd all but forgotten life before her.

"Level ten grandmaster."

"Whoa, that's awesome. Did you celebrate?" I would've had some girl with entrapping eyes not snared me.

"Sort of!" Becoming one of the world's only martial artists to make it to that level in modern times should be something noteworthy, especially for someone my age; for me, it was just something I did to pass the time. It's the one thing I did for myself, the one selfish need I had to fulfill.

I changed the subject since talking about myself has never been high on my list of things I like to do. We shot the breeze for a while playing catchup, and it felt good to be talking to someone who knew more about me than most without knowing who the hell I was.

Funny enough, this is the only place I feel free. When I'm behind the screen doing what I do best, destroying the lives of men like Ricci who think they can hide behind their wealth. Men who show the world one face while hiding behind a mask of deceit.

Each time I help bring down one of these assholes, I'm just sharpening my teeth for the final showdown. I could easily have finished Ricci off with the keyboard a long time ago, but that's too easy for the likes of him. This one is personal, so I want to look into his eyes when I administer the final blow.

"Any luck yet on your thing?" I'm always brought up short when he asks me that. Once, a long time ago, in a moment of weakness when I first started, I'd let slip some of my story. Not much, and I was too young at the time for anyone to take me seriously. But Memnon was the one on the other side of the screen that day, and occasionally, he'd bring it up. I guess he'd seen through the bullshit I'd tried to play it off as to the seriousness behind my words. It's been years, and he still remembers. It freaks me out that he does.

"Some yes, it's going slow." No, it's not, but we're ANONYMOUS for a reason. Though we've never crossed the line, never hacked each other, I have no doubt that he, especially, could find me if he so desired. That's why my computers all have special state-of-the-art bells and whistles attached to keep people like myself from getting in. On the other hand, I could probably find him with much effort if I chose, but why bother?

It's enough that he's a friend online, someone who'd helped me hone my skills over the years and has been an ear to bend when needed. We didn't stay long; we just had a brief discussion about the group's next target before logging off.

I stood and stretched before heading for the door to go in search of her. I miss her! That's been happening a lot lately, another phenomenon that I'm not used to. It's easy to tell myself that I can walk away, but at times like this, when I feel that human connection with this one girl, I can't imagine how.

It's only been a few hours, but already I feel like I'm missing a limb. Maybe I'd gone too far, taken too much, and I find myself in that place of self-doubt again as I opened the door to the girls' room, where they were laughing and chattering away, full of excitement.

"Are you two done with her? Come, Gianna, let's go see your dad before we leave."

"The flight's in two hours; you don't have time."

"He lives ten minutes away, Anna, not Jupiter. We won't be long." I took Gianna's hand in mine and led her from the room.

"I didn't know we were going to see my dad."

"You don't want to?"

"I wasn't planning on it, but I guess since I'm going out of the country, I should tell him." Of course, there's that. I just smiled and let her carry on, believing that that was the reason for our visit.

Felix wasn't the only one in the Fontane residence having a meltdown; Victoria had been breaking shit since she drove off the night before. I'm going to make sure her crazy goes off the charts, and she escalates by the time her mother is let out of jail. I have to time everything perfectly so that by the time we head to Paris in a few weeks, this will all be over.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with Fontane if I'll leave him standing or not, but those two I know for certain must go. He's already starting to pay for his mistakes though it will never be enough, but at the end of the day, he's Gianna's blood, so I'll only go so far with his destruction. Victoria and Becky, on the other hand, can't be left to do more damage than they'd already done.

I made sure she was dressed well enough to cause havoc, changing her out of the jeans and sweater she'd worn shopping into something more upscale. The black velvet palazzo with a cream silk blouse and matching black velvet jacket was perfect though she balked.

"Gabriel, I'm just going around the corner to see dad; why do I need to get all dressed up like this?"

"I see Ma hasn't given you the talk. A lady must always look her best even if she's just going down the driveway to grab the mail." She rolled her eyes and giggled, which caused me to do something stupid, like pulling her in for a kiss. So much for distancing myself.